This Week's Lesson: Some of Golf's Rules Are Ridiculous

by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 30, 2010 12:34 PM EDT in Pro Golf

This week has been kind of bizarre - what with the Alexis Thompson, Robert Rock, and Sarah Brown situations leading the news. All of these situations offer some glimpse into the more bizarre aspects of golf rules and exemptions. It made me wonder about some things that we can bat around this afternoon:

If an amateur wins on a pro tour and turns pro, they retain their two year exemption (or whatever term it is). If an amateur turns pro and already has an exemption, they lose it.
If a player turns in a scorecard with a correct number but the wrong addends to the sum get the player disqualified. Meanwhile, if someone messes it up on that tour's live scoring page, they can just hit the delete button to fix it and not lose their paycheck for the week.
Competitors are supposed to have their clubs inspected before each round if they're selected for groove interrogation. But Sarah Brown didn't even get to finish her round before she was whisked off of the course in New Hampshire.

Any others that you'd like to bring up?

Tweet Comment 11 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

As silly as it seems – it’s hard to support a change in the second one, RB. Keeping score in golf IS fairly important – and they give you a very neatly laid out sheet of paper with boxes underneath the hole number. I’m pretty sure they knew that they didn’t play the course out of order.

The amateur turning pro example isn’t a rule of golf – it’s a rule of the tour – but I get where you’re going.

A situation that has happened twice this year in majors is another Tour rule. Neither Graeme McDowell nor Louie Oosthuizen are members of the PGA Tour. Winning the US and British Opens respectively make them eligible for PGA Tour membership. (McDowell says he will accept for next year – Louie hasn’t decided yet) If they had decided to take the card and start playing this year, they would be starting at zero in Fed Ex Cup points – not from the 600 they would have gotten as PGA Tour members who won a major if they were members before the tournament. If they take the card – they should get the points for winning.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jul 30, 2010 12:45 PM EDT reply actions

Nothing new here, but the golfer has done nothing wrong

if his ball, after being addressed, moves a bit on the green due to wind. No penalty.

Maybe if that happens to Tiger on the 18th of a major, they’ll change the rule.

by TXQ on Jul 30, 2010 12:48 PM EDT reply actions

If the first rule is referring to exemptions into majors...

The exemption earned by an amateur in a professional competition were earned against a higher level of competition. Those exemptions were made with the expectation that the holder of the exemption would collect a check and not a participation ribbon in the major.

These amateur exemptions are granted for amateurs as a result of competing with other amateurs. Tournament can use these exemptions to support amateur golf at little expense because the amateur does not collect prize money. That contract is broken when with the decision to turn pro because now there is a very real cost for the amateur exemption (possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars). If amateurs get to keep these exemptions when they turn pro then the amateur exemptions will probably disappear.

A potential remedy to this situation would be to allow the pros to participate under their amateur exemption but as an "amateur", with no sponsor product placement on apparel, and any winnings to be donated to UNICEF or some other suitable charity.

by sports medic on Jul 30, 2010 4:57 PM EDT reply actions